[freshpots]

"Pakistani parents have good reason to not trust anything administered by a needle. 700 children recently contracted HIV."

Is not a good rationale for making a decision. Parents, indeed anyone, shouldn't be worried about anything administered by a needle unless proper protocols are not followed, and they always should.

[austhrow743]

They should pretend proper protocols are followed because proper protocols should be followed?

[ceejayoz]

That's like saying the cure for cancer is not getting cancer.

[polynomial]

works every time.

[K0balt]

The outbreak of HIV in Pakistan is because of needle reuse.

[hilbert42]

I've mentioned this previously on HN. In the early 1960s when I was vaccinated at school we were done with a common needle that was used multiple times.

Nowadays it's a horrific notion and should never be done but back then the horrors of polio were so real and frightening that doing multiple vaccinations with one needle was of secondary importance (or so it seems). I've often wondered since how many cases of polio and hepatitis were actually spread back then by using a common needle (I've never understood why even back then doctors weren't concerned about this).

BTW, as I've mentioned previously, we kids were lined in the school's assembly hall in two long lines of over 100 that extended out the doors into the schoolyard—one line for boys and one for girls—and vaccinated immediately one after another. After every dozen or so kids the needle was changed.

It quickly got around that a new needle didn't hurt as much as a well-used one and we kids started jostling for positions in the line. We watched and counted how often the needle was changed then count our position in the line, we then we'd pay pennies to buy an optimal positions in the line (be first after the needle was changed). That being first was less risky never entered our minds.

At no time were we ever told about the dangers of sharing needles. As far as I am aware none of us got ill from that experience.

Incidentally, the whole school of about 1100 kids was vaccinated in about an hour and half—between the morning tea break and lunchtime. Compare that with the slow rigmarole of vaccination campaigns of today.